Family Group Conferences in Youth Justice in Israel.

Israel has been experimenting with Family Group Conferences (FGC) in
Youth Justice for a number of years as an alternative for young
offenders who have been blamed for breaking the criminal law. The
initiators of the program in Israel are the Ministry of Public Security in
cooperation with the Israel Police, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and
the Joint-Ashalim organization. When project planning began in 1998-9,
a key requirement was to adapt the idea from its implementation
overseas (based on the New Zealand model) to Israeli conditions and
needs — our particular population mix, the structure of our law
enforcement system and our care and rehabilitation systems. This task
was entrusted to a steering committee comprising representatives of
the Ministry of Public Security, the Israel Police (IP), the Ministry of
Justice, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Joint-Ashalim, and the Keshet
Association. By late 2000 fieldwork began, at first in only a handful of
police stations; by 2002 it had been expanded to the present number
of twelve. (excerpt)